Category: The PT Law Blog

Posted on

U.S. Creates Trade Security Center

The ECEC will be located at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and shall “serve as the primary forum within the Federal Government for executive departments and agencies to coordinate and enhance their export control enforcement efforts and identify and resolve conflicts that have not been otherwise resolved in criminal and administrative investigations and actions involving violations of U.S. export control laws”.

In the near future, we will have an additional, more detailed Client Update on this matter, and how it may impact your business or organization.  The complete text of the Executive Order is currently available at the White House press office website.

Posted on

US Exposes Iranian Efforts to Evade Economic Sanctions

The designations were done pursuant to Executive Order 13392 that blocks the property of persons and their networks involved in proliferation activities.  IRISL, Iran’s national maritime carrier company, was first added to a sanctions watch list by the United States in September 2008.  Individuals and entities listed are prohibited from accessing the U.S. financial and commercial systems.

A U.S. person – meaning any U.S. citizen, permanent resident alien, U.S. company (including their foreign branches) and any person or company in the United States –  is prohibited from engaging in any transaction or dealing with any party designated under EO 13382.

For more information on the recent set of designations, please read the following U.S. Government notice:  Treasury Exposes Efforts by Iran to Avoid Sanctions on Shipping.

Posted on

GAO Study on Defense Exports, Reporting Needs to be Improved

Pursuant to numerous laws including the Arms Export Control Act (AECA), federal agencies must report certain types of sales to the Congress. The Congress requested that the GAO identify the magnitude and nature of defense exports and assess the information currently reported on these exports to the Congress.  The exports review had a total value of $19 billion to $22 billion annually from 2005 to 2009.

The GAO recommended that “Congress consider whether it needs specific data on exported defense services and is recommending that State [Department] publicly report consolidated defense export data on DCS and FMS in a consistent manner. In the absence of additional direction and resources from Congress, the Department of State did not agree. GAO believes the recommendation remains valid.”

The report is available for download here.